Monday, October 27, 2008

FIRST LADIES Portraits by LAURIE MUNN at BARNEY'S WINDOWS

Embedded video from CNN VideoJust a few days before the presidential election, I took these photos of the new window display at BARNEY'S featuring portraits of 43 American First Ladies, including prospective First Ladies, MICHELLE OBAMA and CINDY McCAIN. The portraits were painted by the artist LAURIE MUNN. The portraits of the two first lady hopefuls created some "controversy" and speculation about the political leaning of Barney's and its creative director. In the portraits, MICHELLE OBAMA is smiling with soft features and good lighting, while CINDY McCAIN's portrait is not flattering, with sharp angles, and she is depicted looking to the side. You decide.

2 comments:

This is an artist's conception of the first ladies. I don't know what all the controversy is about.All of the first ladies were depicted through the artist's lens, and I don't see why her vision of Michelle Obama and Cindy Mc Cain should be seen any differently from the rest.. This, to me, is clearly censorship, and I do not respect Barney's decision to remove these two portraits from their window display.

I find it unfortunate that the corporate sponsors of Barney's have caved to the pressure of what is perceived as an unflattering portrait of Cindy Mc Cain. All of these portraits are an artist's interpretation of the first ladies, and many of them are not pretty, not flattering portraits. This is clearly censorship in my eyes, given that Barney's has chosen to remove the portraits of the two potential first ladies from their window display. It's certainly far less compelling without them.